NEW DELHI: Among hospitalised patients in Italy recovering from COVID-19, 87.4 per cent have reported persistence of at least one symptom, particularly fatigue and dyspnea even after two months of being discharged from the hospital and very few were symptom-free, a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) has found.
The study Persistent Symptoms in Patients After Acute COVID-19 concludes that clinicians and researchers have focused on the acute phase of COVID-19, but continued monitoring after discharge for long-lasting effects is needed.
In the waning phase of the pandemic, beginning on April 21, 2020, the Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS in Rome, Italy, established a post outpatient service for individuals discharged from the hospital after recovery from COVID-19.
All patients who met World Health Organization criteria for discontinuation of quarantine (no fever for three consecutive days, improvement in other symptoms, and two negative test results for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 [SARS-CoV-2] 24 hours apart) were followed up.
On enrollment in the study, real-time reverse transcriptase–polymerase chain reaction for SARS-CoV-2 was performed and patients with a negative test result were identified.
From April 21 to May 29, 2020, 179 patients were potentially eligible for the follow-up post-acute care assessment, of whom 22 tested positive and 14 refused to participate. The mean age of the 143 patients who finally became a part of the study was 56.5 years (range, 19-84 years). Fifty-three of the patients (37 per cent) were women.
During hospitalization, 72.7 per cent of these participants had evidence of interstitial pneumonia. The mean length of hospital stay was 13.5 days; 21 patients (15 per cent) received non-invasive ventilation and 7 patients (5 per cent) received invasive ventilation.
"Patients were assessed a mean of 60.3 days after onset of the first COVID-19 symptom; at the time of the evaluation, only 18 (12.6 per cent) were completely free of any COVID-19 related symptom, while 32 per cent had 1 or 2 symptoms and 55 per cent had 3 or more. None of the patients had fever or any signs or symptoms of acute illness," said the study published on July 9.
It further shows that a worsened quality of life was observed among 44.1 per cent of patients and a high proportion of individuals still reported fatigue (53.1 per cent), dyspnea (43.4 per cent), joint pain, (27.3 per cent) and chest pain (21.7 per cent).
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